1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an emergency call receiving unit for emergency services.
2. Description of Prior Art
Modern vehicles are frequently equipped with keyless access systems or radio keys, referred to as Remote Keyless Entry (RKE) systems. These radio keys control the locking and unlocking of doors and the baggage space of a motor vehicle by radio control. In this way, the vehicle door locks of a motor vehicle can be opened and closed in a wireless fashion. Further functions, such as, for example, the immobilizer, can be activated or deactivated by a radio key.
A radio key system comprises a vehicle-mounted receiver or a vehicle module and one or more mobile transmitters which can be held in the hand. The transmitter or the portable module can be provided here with one or more manually operated switches. Furthermore, there are newer generations of radio keys in which the radio key is no longer held in the hand but instead the vehicle-mounted transmitter registers the proximity of the key to the vehicle and unlocks the door lock as a result, for example, of the door handle being touched by the driver. The elimination of manual inputs by the radio key transmitter is made possible through the use of what is referred to as bidirectional communication. In contrast to a conventional radio key central locking system, the radio key transmitter not only transmits signals to the lock system but also receives information from the lock system. In this context, the radio key transmitter is embodied as a transceiver. With what is referred to as Passive Start and Entry (PASS) systems, the doors are unlocked solely as a result of the door handle being touched and the engine can be started by a button being pressed without a key.
In this context, the vehicle-mounted transceiver has a memory which stores an identification code which can identify the radio key transmitter.
The exchange of information with various vehicles participating in the traffic and between the vehicle and the infrastructure can in future contribute to increasing the safety of road users and the comfort of vehicle drivers. This communication from vehicle to vehicle or from vehicle to infrastructure, referred to below as vehicle-to-X communication (C2X communication) can be used only if a certain proportion of the vehicles or infrastructure units involved are equipped with corresponding communication units based on the same technology. In particular given the rapid changes in communication technology and in view of the price expectations of vehicle drivers, the additional expenditure which is associated with retrofitting the vehicles in order to provide and install such a communication unit may be too high. Therefore, simple and cost-effective possible solutions are needed which can make available vehicle-to-X communication to a large number of vehicle owners.
Furthermore it is known that emergency vehicles, such as fire trucks, ambulances, or the like, rely on well functioning communication when they are deployed. This requires communication technologies for vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-emergency service control center in order to be able to send massages to other emergency services and to be able to quickly coordinate the rescue operation.
If an emergency call is received at a rescue control center via, for example, a telephone call without a precise position indication, this rescue control centre will dispatch the emergency services. The position indication of the calling party is frequently not precise enough and the rescue services have to firstly locate in-situ the parties involved in the accident or an object which is being searched for. For example transmission equipment such as radio can be made available to the search parties for this purpose.
However, coordinating operations by radio involves in practice a certain degree of inaccuracy or does not function or does not function well enough. For this reason, there is a need for reliably functioning vehicle-to-vehicle communication for emergency services.
After a crash, it is sometimes difficult for rescue services to find the vehicle involved in the accident. Once it has been found, it is difficult with modern vehicles to find out where rescue cutters can be applied, due to such things as airbags and high strength steels, and which drive technology and therefore operating materials have to be taken into consideration.
It is known how vehicle functions can be triggered by rescue services and how search parties can be coordinated. Furthermore, a locating signal for emergency services is known.